Getting Our Tree!

We have a tradition we started back in 2012, when we celebrated our first Christmas together. We hadn't even been married a month yet, and we hadn't had the chance to give proper thought to things like Christmas traditions. It's kind of a wonder we have traditions at all!

But neither of us had ever done the live tree thing before (at least as adults) so we decided we'd have one live tree in our decoration collection each year. For our first four Christmases, we visited different Christmas tree farms around the state, picking out cute little trees and bringing them home to be part of our season.

Last year, the day we set aside to go to the tree farm brought the first wintry mix of the year. We decided it wasn't the best day to go, but we would have to wait over a week for our next opportunity to find a farm. I didn't want to delay my decorating, so we visited the Kroger Christmas Tree Farm (okay, lot) and picked out a pre-cut tree from their stash.

It ended up being the best financial choice for us. While we love the fun of going to a farm and walking among the trees and finding ours, those trees are not cheap! We could get a tree twice as big as any we'd ever had, for less than we'd paid at most farms.

We decorated earlier this year than we ever have before, mostly because we are hosting Thanksgiving, and I wanted the house to be all pretty and cozy. (Mom will host Christmas, so we'll look at her tree that day!)

I'd been keeping an eye on Kroger, to see when their trees might come in, and as of Saturday, I'd not seen any. That afternoon, while Ryan was still at work, I called to see if they knew when they might be delivered. The lady who answered the phone said they were being unloaded from a truck that very minute. Well....perfect timing!

So we went out in the freezing cold and rain (why????) to pick out our tree. We made short work of that choice due to the aforementioned freezing cold and rain.

 (Guarding the tree while he went inside to pay. And oh my soul, that NOSE!!)

We planned to decorate him that very night, but alas, he was SOAKED. We didn't think putting strands of light on a drenched tree seemed very wise. So we just set him all up and let him acclimate overnight.

He ended up being a lot bigger OUT of his net than in it. 

Sunday afternoon, we put the lights on him and went through our tradition of reading the stories behind all our ornaments as we put them on the tree.

(Side note if you don't know: this particular tree is our "story" tree. All the main ornaments are ones we've collected on our various adventures, plus an ornament to represent each year and a piece of each tree's trunk. We fill it in with colored balls, but the main ornaments tell our story. As we collect the ornaments, I take pictures of them and write on the back the year we got them and the stories behind each one. We read those stories as we decorate!)

The only ornaments on this tree that have NOT been collected since we got married? Our very first ornaments from our childhood. :)

I filled in with a few extras, and then Ryan put the S on top to complete it!

It may be tethered to the wall in three places because it has a curved trunk, and it may be raining needles when bumped, but it's our tree! A piece of Shafferland history!

(Further photos of our Christmas decor to follow later!)

Linking up with Tamar!